A newly formed labour organisation that was attempting to organise employees at the retail giant suffered a setback when workers at an Amazon facility near to Albany emphatically rejected a unionisation bid.
206 votes were cast in favour of the merger, while 406 were cast against it. 949 workers at the ALB1 warehouse had the option of voting on whether or not to join the Amazon Labor Union, according to officials.
ALU President Chris Smalls stated that the voting process ‘wasn’t free and fair’ and suggested that the union will seek to have the election results nullified. The legal team for the ALU has already filed 27 complaints with the National Labor Relations Board alleging unfair labour practises against the company.
‘It was a sham election where workers were subjected to intimidation and retaliation on a daily basis and even the workers who volunteered to be election observers were faced with threats of termination,’ Smalls said.
The staff at ALB1 believed that joining a union would help them get paid more. Amazon last month raised the starting pay for the facility from $15.70 to $17 per hour, in line with pay increases for front-line workers around the country.
The ALB1 organisers have also highlighted concerns about the workplace, asserting that the hectic environment is to blame for the high injury rates and worker tiredness.
The ALU’s triumph at JFK8 marked a turning moment for the labour movement and resulted in the formation of the first unionised Amazon warehouse in the country.
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